Ken Burns Unveils the Complex Story of America’s Revolution
This Sunday, PBS will premiere Ken Burns’ latest documentary, The American Revolution , a six-part, 12-hour exploration of the nation’s fight for independence and the birth of American democracy. The series arrives at a moment when the country is deeply divided, and Burns’ goal is to provide a full, nuanced picture of the origins of the United States, warts and all.
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The story begins on April 19, 1775, with the first shots fired in what would become the Revolutionary War. As the series emphasizes, it was far from a sanitized history of lofty ideals debated in Philadelphia. Instead, it was a bloody civil war, with Americans fighting Americans over conflicting loyalties, and a global war with far-reaching consequences. Burns insists that understanding this origin story is crucial, not just to know where we come from, but to grasp the possibilities of where the nation could go.
Filmed at iconic locations like George Washington’s Mount Vernon home, the series highlights the contradictions of the era. For instance, the man most responsible for founding the country, Washington himself, also owned slaves. “It’s complicated,” Burns notes, underscoring the moral tensions and difficult realities embedded in America’s foundation. The revolution was a war of high ideals, proclaiming unalienable rights, but also of harsh realities: land grabs, profiteering, and violent clashes that tore communities apart.
The American Revolution runs for six consecutive nights, presenting an unflinching, richly detailed view of the birth of the United States. In Burns’ hands, history becomes more than dates and battles; it becomes a living, often messy story of ideals, contradictions, and enduring human struggles that continue to shape the American experiment.
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